Border Incident

Synopsis: To penetrate a gang exploiting illegal Mexican farmworkers smuggled into California (and leaving no live witnesses), Mexican federal agent Pablo Rodriguez poses as an ignorant bracero, while his American counterpart Jack Bearnes works from outside. Soon, both are in deadly danger from the ringleader, sinister rancher Owen Parkson, and find night on the farm to be full of shadowy film-noir menace...

Genre: Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

Director(s): Anthony Mann

Actors: Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, Howard Da Silva, James Mitchell

Production: WARNER BROTHERS PICTURES


IMDB:: 7.1
Rotten Tomatoes:: 67%

Collection Edit Watch PDF Buy

: PASSED
Year:: 1949
: 94 min
: 38 Views

Here is the All-American Canal.
It runs through the desert for miles
along the California-Mexico border.
A monument to the vision of man,
the canal is the life-giving artery of water...
...that feeds the vast farm empire
of the Imperial Valley of Southern California.
Out of this desert wasteland, man's industry
has made a flourishing garden.
Farming in Imperial Valley
is a great industry.
Here, a single field of prosaic carrots
or lettuce or flax or melons...
...may be worth a half million dollars.
This great agricultural empire is important
to the entire United States.
Nature never waits.
When the crops are ready,
they must be harvested.
This means manpower...
...a vast army of farm workers
who must be available when needed.
And this army of workers comes from
our neighbor to the south, from Mexico.
For the Imperial Valley of California...
...like many other farm areas
of the great Southwest...
...is almost entirely dependent
on Mexican labor.
These workers prepare the land
and harvest the food for our tables.
And so all along the border,
from Texas to California...
...Mexican farm workers...
Braceros, they are called...
...meaning "those who work
with their hands and arms. "
- are waiting on the Mexican side
to be okayed...
...to receive the coveted American
work permits or crossing cards.
Most of these braceros obey
the laws of both countries...
...and wait at the border to enter
the United States legally...
...under the treaty between the Mexican
and American governments.
But there are other braceros who come
and go illegally, who jump the fence.
These Mexican illegal entrants work
in the United States for a while...
...and upon returning to Mexico are often
robbed of their savings by bandits...
...who infest both sides of the border.
It is this problem of human suffering
and injustice about which you should know.
The following composite case
is based upon factual information...
...supplied by the Immigration
and Naturalization Service...
...of the United States
Department of Justice.
These brutal murders
of defenseless braceros...
...the latest of a number
along the border...
...spur two governments
to new and drastic efforts.
From Mexico City come
Colonel Rafael Alvarado...
...a high official in
the Polica Judicial Federal...
...the FBI of Mexico...
...and Pablo Rodriguez,
one of the PJF's foremost investigators.
From Washington come...
...Assistant Commissioner of Immigration
John McReynolds...
...and Inspector Jack Bearnes...
...who has just finished a tour of duty
along the Gulf.
These officials of Mexico
and of the United States...
...arrive for a meeting at
the governor's palace in Mexicali...
...across the border
from the California town of Calexico.
We are not talking
about bloody shirts or torn hats.
We're not talking about that at all.
We are talking about the people
who lived and died in these clothes.
I know that, sir, but if they cross illegally,
what is our responsibility to them?
Most of my people do not cross illegally.
Those who come over with work permits,
we protect.
As a matter of fact, most of the ranchers
on our side obey these work treaties.
They take certified farm workers
and pay them legal wages.
These things we know, but some
of my people, they are not well-educated.
They allow themselves
to be smuggled across.
I know. And some of my people
pay them half wages...
...conceal them from arrest,
make them live in fear...
...and send them back to the desert
to be robbed and killed.
Since these people work together
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John C. Higgins

John C. Higgins (April 28, 1908 – July 2, 1995) was an American screenwriter. During the 1930s and early 1940s, the Winnipeg, Canada-born scribe worked on mostly complex murder mystery films, including the Spencer Tracy film Murder Man (1935). During the late 1940s, Higgins continued to pen thrillers, including semidocumentary-style films, including director Anthony Mann's He Walked By Night, Raw Deal, T-Men and Border Incident. Higgins also wrote horror films like the Basil Rathbone starrer The Black Sleep (1956) and Higgins last film Daughters of Satan (1972). Higgins also wrote the science fiction film Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) and the adventure film Impasse (1969). more…

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